Dear Friends,

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

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There was a certain man . . . whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren. . . The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. . .  Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel of God, most awe inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. . . .'”

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Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, “O Lord, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who is to be born.” God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again. . . .

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Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid (young goat) for you.” The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord. (For Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord). . . .

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So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord, to him who works wonders. And the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame . . . while Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. . . Then Manoah realized it was the angel of the Lord and he said to his wife, “We shall surely die for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.

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The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. (Judges 13).

It was a graceless time of evil, oppression and spiritual barrenness. Yet, Manoah’s wife carried a seed of faith in her heart in the hope that God would water and nurture it into new life. The seed attracted the attention of God and he brought her seed to life with a message of grace.

Manoah too had faith that God could and would do something more before their hard, eked-out existence. The proof of Manoah’s faith was his prayer for more God and a deeper understanding. Faithless men and women don’t pray for God to come again, because they don’t believe he exists nor came to us in the first place. The reality of God to us is expressed in our prayers.

But in the moment of crisis, when what Manoah and his wife believed about God was put to the test by sacrifice, God’s revelation evoked a different reaction from each of them. Manoah falls apart in fear that close proximity of God means death. His wife thought about what she had seen and heard and understood God would not have revealed himself, accepted their worship, and given them a message of grace and love in a time of barrenness, if he meant to kill them. Her reaction evidences her belief that God loved them and could be trusted.

When put to the test, what do you believe about God? Are you afraid of him or do you trust him?

Men and women write and speak to me about their fear of God. I don’t mean the riveting focus on God and his expressed will that the Bible refers to as “fearing God.” They claim a cringing fear that keeps them from a close relationship with God and denies them joy at the thought of his presence.

Manoah’s wife was living in a time of evil, oppression and spiritual barrenness as do we. Things were dark and getting darker. But she made the choice that faith must always make (Gal 3:6). She chose to believe that God meant it when he told her, “You will conceive and bear a son.” The God who told Manoah and her such wonderful things, accepted their offerings and showed them spiritual fire, is not a capricious trickster like the gods of magic and superstition worshiped by the pagan Philistines.

Faith may require us to trust God beyond the point to which our thinking leads us, but that is a belief that God is good and bigger than we can ask or think. Superstition is a fearful bargaining to earn the blessing that faith trusts he will give to us. The woman had faith that God would act consistently with his Word.

She also believed God was just. The angel had given express instructions for the upbringing of the child they were being given, and how she was to conduct herself as his mother. Why would God ask for their faith and obedience just to kill them. That would be neither righteous nor just and she was convinced that God was both.

Her third argument for God’s trustworthiness is God never contradicts himself. She logically and respectfully concluded, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these” (Jgs 13:25). It is inconceivable that God would give his word and go back on it.

Centuries later after Christ proved on the cross that God would keep his word to us, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). Paul said this to the Romans in even stronger terms, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:33).

But, Kent, the cringing legalists say, “Paul also tells us, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.'” And I say in response, “Would you please read the whole verse. Paul actually says, ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure’ (Phil 2:12-13). Salvation requires you to put yourself in the hands of a loving God and trust him to do in you and for you what he says he will do and wants to do with you. Your responsibility is to let nothing come between God and you.”

The Apostle John could not make it any clearer that it’s God’s love that gives us confidence to face judgment and removes fear of punishment.

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them. Love is perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect (complete) love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and who ever fears has not reached perfection (completeness) in love. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:16-19).

It is a maddening struggle to get men and women to believe God loves them specifically and completely. He loves you and me today as much as He will ever love us. Nothing we can do can lose his love and nothing we can do can earn his love. He loves us at our darkest and worst (Romans 5:8). He doesn’t quit on us.

We can search the Holy Scriptures through and through and never find reference to a point where God stops loving us. Because true love is un-coerced we can refuse it, of course, and choose eternal oblivion.

I think so many of us struggle with accepting the unconditional love of God because our rebel hearts refuse unconditional surrender. “All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and know what we deserve for this offense against the Creator and are afraid. We find it hard to believe that we would be “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 4:23-24).

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, suffered the worst humans can dish out on the cross and the dark second death beyond, but the glorious love of the Father reached into the grace and drew Jesus from the grave and us with him” (Rom 6:4). All of this was for love. All of this was for us.

Manoah’s wife took God at his word and so should we. The priests and shamans of other gods say, “Be afraid, be very afraid.” The most frequent instruction Jesus gave in the gospels was “Don’t be afraid” or a variation of the same thing.

God’s focus is salvation, not punishment. That’s why we can focus on him with the confidence of Isaiah who said–
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Surely God is my salvation;

    I will trust and not be afraid;

For the Lord God is my strength and my might;

    he has become my salvation.

         Isa 12:2

“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,

Kent

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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.

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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.

Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.